It is marketed as the hydrochloride salt spectinomycin hydrochloride under the trade name Trobicin. It is in aminocyclitol class, closely related to the aminoglycosides, produced by the bacteriumStreptomyces spectabilis. Spectinomycin is produced in nature by many organisms including cyanobacteria and various plant species. It is present in the genome or plastome of many plastids as the spc operon, which is usually two to 10 amino acids long. The difference in size may be due to the elimination of obsolete genes or the takeover of its function by nuclear genes. Spectinomycin is mainly produced by organisms as a defence mechanism against predators.

This antibiotic is no longer available in the United States. A resistance-conferring gene for spectinomycin can also be used as a selection marker in bacteria for molecular cloning purposes. Furthermore, spectinomycin is used as a selection agent for transformed plant cells that contain the selectable marker gene Spcr.[3]

Biosynthesis of spectinomycin begins similar to all aminoglycosides, with the formation of an inositol ring. The difference is the initial modification that forms the inositol ring of spectinomycin. The process begins with a glucose-6-phosphate (1a), which is reduced by NADH to form a ketone at C2 (2a). This ketone is then formed into a primary amine group through PLP and glutamine transamination (3a). This process is repeated again at C4 to form a second primary amine (4a). Once these two amines are present, the glucose ring is ready to be methylated through two S-adenosyl methionine molecules (5a). With this methylation, the glucose ring is finally ready to be converted into an inositol ring through inositol cyclase (6a). This can then be hydrolyzed to get rid of the phosphate group, making the inositol ring necessary for spectinomycin (7a).

While all this happens, an alternate pathway is occurring creating the sugar functional group from a similar starting product. In this pathway, glucose-1-phosphate is used as the starting product (1b). This is converted into a TDP glucose through TDP synthase (2b). TDP glucose then has the hydroxyl removed from C6 through a hydratase enzyme (3b), which is then reduced through NADH at C4 creating a new product (4b). With this ketone present, PLP and glutamine can come in to convert it to a primary amine (5b) which can then be removed through a deaminase (6b). This conversion to 6b is also accompanied by a double reduction at C4 and C3 through two more NADH molecules, giving the final product necessary to form the aminoglycoside. With this, products 7a and 6b can come together, removing the TDP functional group and combining with the sugar molecule to form the aminoglycoside spectinomycin.[5]